On the Reproducl ion of Buds . 7 5 



liave subjected them to a greater force of electricity, yet 

 1 could never discover on them any marks of fusion, or that 

 the metal was stained brown, as in the other experiments. 



It is very surprising that so small a quantity of accumu- 

 lated electricity should operate so powerfully on a plate of 

 metal, when it requires a very large battery to melt a small 

 wire ' Many electricians have turned their thoughts to the 

 melting of wires, &c. bv the electric battery, amongst whom 

 I would notice Mr. A. Brooks, late of Norwich, who seems 

 to have treated this subject with great perspicuity and exact- 

 ness : but very few of them thought of making the 'I'^charge 

 through plates of metal; which seems to open a wide field 

 for observation and experiment. 



The insertion of the above in your publication wdl greatly 



o ige, sir, ^^^^^ obedient humble servant. 



C. R. 



XV. On the Reproduction of Buds. By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq. F.R.S. In a Letter to the Right Hon, 

 Sir Joseph Banks, K.B. P.R.S,"^ 



MY DEAR SIR, 



Every tree in the ordinary course of its growth generates, 

 in each season, those buds which expand in the succeedmg 

 sprincr ; and the buds thus generated contain, m many m- 

 stances, the whole of the leaves which appear m the follow- 

 hmr summer. But if these buds be destroyed during the 

 winter or early part of the spring, other buds, m many spe- 

 cies of trees, are generated, which in every respect perform 

 the office of those which previously existed, except that they 

 never afford fruit or blossoms. This reproduction of buds 

 has not escaped the notice of naturalists ; but it does not ap- 

 pear to have been ascertained by them from which, amongst 

 the various substances of the tree, the buds derive their origin. 

 Du Hamel conceived that reproduced buds sprang from 

 pre-organized germs : but the existence of such germs has 



• From the Tra;,aU'en: ^JDu Roial S.aeiy for 1805. ^^^ 



